The Department of Defense announced today the
death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Private First Class Robert A. Guy, 26, of Willards,
Maryland, died April 21, 2005, as a result of a non-hostile incident near
Al Karmah, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment,
2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North
Carolina.

The incident is under investigation.

Media with questions about this Marine can call the 2nd Marine Division
Public Affairs Office at (910) 451-9033.

A North Carolina-based Marine was killed Thursday
near Fallujah, Iraq, according to his family.

Private First Class Robert “Bobby” Guy, 26,
died after being shot in the head, his mother, Ann Guy, told The (Salisbury)
Daily Times.

“He wanted to be there,” Ann Guy said of her
son’s deployment to Iraq. “He wanted to be there, and he was so proud to
be a Marine.”

Attempts to reach a number listed for Ann Guy
in Willards by The Associated Press were unsuccessful Sunday night. A message
left with a Marine spokesman wasn’t immediately returned.

At the local fire hall in this tiny Wicomico
County town, just around the corner from Guy’s house, a sign read: “God
bless our hero Bobby Guy.”

Over the weekend, Guy’s family and friends
remembered Guy as a goodhearted man who loved jokes and who worked for
more than a year to become a Marine. “I never saw him work at anything
so hard his whole life,” Ann Guy said. “He really wanted this.”

Guy graduated from boot camp in June and was
a member of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He left
for Iraq in January and had been scheduled to come home in August. He was
also close to being promoted to Lance Corporal, his mother said.

A former Parkside High School student, he left
before graduating, earning his graduate equivalency diploma while living
in Arkansas.

“He did make some wrong choices, and he did
his best when he grew up a little bit,” said Cory Perdue, a high school
friend. “Going into the Marine Corps was just the next step for him improving
himself.”

Deborah Cox, Guy’s aunt, said she remembered
her nephew’s sense of humor, a side of Guy that Perdue spoke about as well.
“He was very outgoing,” Perdue said. “He was in trouble quite a lot, but
it was just mischief trouble. It wasn’t any kind of big trouble.”

Friends and family said Guy was a dedicated
Marine. Ann Guy remembered a conversation she had with her son about joining
the Marines.

“He said ‘Mom, are you going to be OK with
this?”’ Ann Guy said. “And I said, ‘Bobby, I’m going to tell you right
now, there isn’t a mother alive that wants to see her son going off to
war.”’

But Ann Guy said she supported him entirely
when he decided to join: “He died doing what he wanted to do.”

Guy is survived by his mother, Ann, his father,
James Allen Guy Sr., and a brother, James Allen Guy Jr.
WILLARDS, Maryland - A funeral service is set for Saturday
for a Marine private from the Eastern Shore who was killed last week in
Iraq.

Twenty-six-year-old Bobby Guy of Willards died
last Thursday in Al Karmah. He had been in the Marines for just over a
year and had been in Iraq since January.

The funeral service will be held Saturday at
1 p.m. at Hastings Funeral Home in Selbyville. Delaware. Burial will be
Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Arlington National Cemetery.
GUY, ROBERT ALLENPFC US MARINE CORPSDATE OF BIRTH: 12/29/1978DATE OF DEATH: 04/21/2005BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 8110ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY